Bad Moon Waning

1 BAD MOON WANING A Short Adventure for Four 10th-Level Player Characters CREDITS Design: Stan! Editing: Penny Williams Typesetting: Nancy Walker Cartography: Rob Lazzaretti Web Production: Julia Martin Web Development: Mark A. Jindra Graphic Design: Sean Glenn, Cynthia Fliege Based on the original DUNGEONS & DRAGONS¤ game by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and on the new edition of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game designed by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Rich Baker, and Peter Adkison. D&D, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, and DUNGEON MASTER are registered trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. The d20 logo is a trademark owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. All Wizards characters, character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. ©2003 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. All rights reserved. Made in the U.S.A. This product is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, places, or events is purely coincidental. This Wizards of the Coast game product contains no Open Game Content. No portion of this work may be reproduced in any form without written permission. To learn more about the Open Gaming License and the d20 System License, please visit www.wizards.com/d20. For more DUNGEONS & DRAGONS articles, adventures, and information, visit www.wizards.com/dnd Bad Moon Waning is a short D&D adventure for four 10th-level player characters (PCs), though it can be modified for higher- or lower-level play if desired (see the Scaling the Adventure sidebar). The adventure is set in and around the village of Deepwood, an isolated town located as its name suggests in the heart of a great forest. It can easily be placed in a remote, wooded area of any campaign world. PREPARATION You (the DM) need the D&D core rulebooks, includ- ing the Player’s Handbook, the DUNGEON MASTER’s Guide, and the Monster Manual. This adventure utilizes the v.3.5 rules, but it can easily be used with the 3.0 rules as well. You can place this adventure in any section of your campaign world that features a remote, forested area in which an isolated town might exist. If there is a small town that the PCs visited in a past adventure but haven t returned to in quite a while, so much the better. As always, feel free to adapt the material presented here as you see fit to make it work with your campaign. To get started, print out this adventure (including the maps). Read through the scenario at least once to familiarize yourself with the situation, threats, and major NPCs (particularly their motivations). Make adjustments as necessary to fit the storyline into your campaign. ADVENTURE BACKGROUND Deepwood is a small community consisting of hunters, loggers, artisans, and a few hardy families who just prefer to live far away from cities. There are a couple of farms in the surrounding area, but the people here subsist for the most part on fish, game, and naturally- growing crops such as mushrooms, wild vegetables, and seasonal fruit. The people of Deepwood have always led quiet lives. Traders come through a few times a year to exchange goods and materials made in the cities for local furs, pelts, artwork, and lumber, but otherwise there are few visitors. The nearest town of any significant size lies several days ride to the east. News from the outside world takes a long while to reach this isolated commu- nity, and word of events taking place in Deepwood can take days or even weeks to spread to the rest of the world. Until recently, however, very few people noticed or cared about such delays, since so little of interest ever happened here. 2 In the past few days, however, word has begun to spread in the outlying areas that all is not well in Deepwood. The only point on which the rumors agree is that the local priestess has been slain savagely mauled by some sort of animal and that terrible crea- ture now stalks the tiny village, seeking more prey. Beyond this information, the details are sketchy and sometimes conflicting. Some tales say that the beast has already been killed; others claim that the townsfolk have seen several half-man-half-beast creatures roam- ing the woods at night. A few say that the woods around the village echo with the howls of an unusual number of wolves and wild dogs. THE TRUTH ABOUT DEEPWOOD Although most of the townsfolk do not know it, were- wolves make up a significant percentage of Deepwood s populace. All of these shapechangers are natural lycan- thropes humans who were born with the ability to transform into wolves or wolf-human hybrids. They have chosen to make their homes in this remote village, where they can indulge their wild natures in the nearby forest without frightening or causing harm to their neighbors. Despite the wild blood that runs through their veins, the werewolves who live in Deepwood are all good people. Not one of them has ever taken a human life, nor do any of them plan to do so. Deepwood is their home, and they consider everyone living there to be part of their pack, werewolf or no. Several nights per month (particularly nights of the full moon), the Deepwood werewolves run through the forest as a pack, hunting deer or other game and cele- brating their wild heritage. This hunting ritual has been going on for years, and no normal member of the community has ever suspected the truth. Thus, the members of the Deepwood pack have been able to live in freedom and harmony with both their surroundings and their human neighbors for many decades. THE LEADER OF THE PACK Two months ago, the peace and harmony of Deepwood was shattered. The pack was hunting a particularly large and powerful buck in the forest by the light of the full moon. But just as the Deepwood werewolves were about to bring down their prey, a tremendous wolf bigger than any three members of the pack combined burst from the surrounding foliage and snapped the deer s neck with one bite of his massive jaws. By right of strength, he growled, I claim leader- ship of this pack. You will all do as I say or face the consequences. Naturally, the pack objected, and its leader (a hunts- man named Trammil Nimman) challenged the new wolf, even though the latter outweighed him by a considerable amount. The pack knew that his effort was doomed to failure, but rather than killing Trammil, the new wolf merely beat him into unconsciousness. I do not wish to kill any of you, he said. That would only weaken my new pack. But I will brook no dissent. The next one who fails to follow my orders to the letter will feel the full extent of my wrath. The new leader seemed so bloodthirsty that the werewolves feared he might order them to attack their human neighbors. To their relief, however, no such order was forthcoming. The new werewolf simply led the pack into the hills to a cave entrance that was masked almost completely by thick foliage. Once there, he assumed a hybrid form and pulled the curtain of leaves aside. The moonlight streamed into the cave, revealing walls speckled with gold. Using his tremendous strength, he struck one of the walls and released a shower of rocks several of which turned out to be gold nuggets the size of a man s fist. This cavern is as large as a house, he said. Each night, four of you will come here and mine the gold as I ve just shown you. If you do not, I will reveal the your true natures to the humans in your town. The werewolves saw no other choice, so they obeyed their new leader. Each night, four of them came to the cave and dug out pound after pound of gold from the cave walls. When they were finished, they took the gold first to Trammil, who recorded the amount in a ledger, and then to a secret glade for hiding. Night after night they extracted gold from the cave. While working, they discussed several possible solu- tions to their plight. Some members suggested that the pack join together to attack this new wolf, but most believed in the traditional practice of following the strongest individual. Attacking as a group is for bring- ing down food, not a brother wolf. To challenge the new leader in any way other than one-on-one combat was deemed dishonorable and cowardly. A few members of the pack offered to travel to the city and hire champions to defeat the new wolf. After all, they pointed out, other communities often did such things when a monster moved into the area, and their new leader could certainly be defined as a monster. But most of the Deepwood werewolves felt that such a solu- tion would be just as dishonorable as ganging up on their tormentor. If they knew his human identity, they mused, perhaps they could at least gain equal footing with him by threatening to reveal his secret unless he left the pack 3 in peace. But neither his hybrid appearance nor his scent reminded them of anyone they knew. They were sure that he had to be a citizen of Deepwood (or at least someone who visited very frequently), else he could not know so much about the pack and its relationship with the townsfolk. But they were at a loss to identify him. ARMON BISTLE The pack s new leader is actually Armon Bistle, the rich- est person in Deepwood. Though he is not a werewolf, he owns a talisman that allows him to mimic a were- wolf s powers, including the scent ability. With this artifact, known as Gnarlpaw’s Fang, he managed to discover the true identities of the members of the Deepwood pack by picking up werewolf scents on them while they were in human form. Armon actually has nothing against the pack. He s known those people since moving to Deepwood more than a year ago, and they have never been anything but good neighbors to him. But Armon has always been a manipulative, opportunistic man, and he will stop at nothing to gain more wealth. Before moving to Deepwood, Armon made his living from confidence schemes. His typical ploy was to move into a new town, make friends with the locals, and then come up with an elaborate plan to fleece them of all their wealth. Bistle was good at his trade, and he managed to amass quite a fortune in gold, gems, and other valuables. Considering that he had been forced to flee from lynch mobs in the last three cities where he had worked his schemes, he decided that it might be time to retire. So he took his ill-gotten loot, changed his name, and moved to Deepwood, a community so remote that he was sure none of his former neighbors could ever find him. Initially, Armon had no intention of taking advan- tage of his new neighbors. Their combined wealth was less than one-fifth of what he d already amassed, so taking it would hardly be worth his while. More impor- tantly, though, he knew that this village was probably the last safe place in the world where he could hide. Greed, however, is more powerful than logic. And when Armon happened to discover a cave that was prac- tically made of gold, he decided to use Gnarlpaw’s fang, a magic item he d acquired during his last job, to take the form of Gnarlpaw, an ancient werewolf lord, and coerce the Deepwood pack into doing his bidding. THE LONE WOLF For a while, events went exactly as Armon Bistle had planned. The Deepwood pack obeyed his orders, mined the gold, and hid it away. Only Trammil Nimman ever showed signs of disobedience, growling under his breath as he recorded the amount of treasure in his ledger each morning. As the pack s former leader, Trammil desperately wanted to oust Armon, but he could never get the rest of the pack to agree on a means other than single combat to do so. As time went on, Trammil became bolder. He spent most nights sniffing around the village in his wolf form, hoping to catch the scent of the new leader on a villager and thus establish his identity. Alas, his attempts were doomed to failure because, unlike a real werewolf, Armon smelled like a human in human form and like the ancient werewolf lord Gnarlpaw in wolf or hybrid form. Thus, the scent that Trammil and the other were- wolves recognized as their pack leader was totally absent when he resumed human form. But although Armon knew that the item protected him from detection by this means, he also realized that it was only a matter of time before he made some error that would enable Trammil to discover the truth. Thus, Armon decided to gain some unwitting aid in removing his rival. One evening, Bistle used Gnarlpaw’s fang to transform into Gnarlpaw, then prowled around town until Trammil picked up his scent. He led the werewolf on a tremendous chase that ended in the town s only house of worship a small temple dedicated to the goddess Ehlonna. There Armon savagely slaughtered Ishtal, the elf priestess who ran the temple. As he had hoped, Trammil followed his scent to the temple, where Armon waited to attack him. With his teeth and claws, Bistle savaged his opponent, but stopped short of delivering the killing blow. Instead, Armon fled the temple, transformed back into his own shape, and ran through the town screaming Murder! at the top of his lungs. Trammil, who lay near death from Armon s attacks, had barely staggered to his feet by the time the townsfolk arrived. Suddenly realizing the picture he presented as a wolf covered in blood beside the corpse of the priestess, Trammil changed back to his human form and tried to tell his fellow villagers the truth. But seeing a killer beast turn into their friend and neighbor only fright- ened the humans more. The werewolf townsfolk tried to talk some sense into their human neighbors, point- ing out the need for a proper trial, but the terrified humans refused to listen. They bound and gagged poor Trammil, dragged him out of town, and hanged him. Torn between loyalty to their friend and fear of discov- ery, the other werewolves in town made no further effort to stop the hanging, knowing that if their own natures were discovered, they would face a choice between shedding innocent blood and sharing Trammil s fate. SHADOW OF THE WOLF In death, Trammil reverted to his human shape. But the townsfolk left him hanging there and placed a sign reading murdering dog around his neck as a warning to any other werewolves that might be near. Deepwood is now a town nearly paralyzed by fear. Trammil had been a member of the community for years and yet no one had ever suspected his dark secret. Worse still, upon searching his belongings, the townsfolk found a ledger containing notes in a language that they could not read. Could this be a list of other local werewolves? After all, werewolves often run in packs. Who else among them might be a murderous beast in disguise? The townsfolk decided to place the book in the temple under constant surveillance, reasoning that sooner or later one of the other werewolves would try to steal it. If they could capture that person alive, they might be able to gain more information. Alternatively, if someone with knowledge of this language happened through town, they might be able to prevail upon that person to reveal the book s contents to them. In fact, the book is Trammil s ledger, in which he recorded the daily amounts of gold and the specific loca- tions where the werewolves buried it. The language is a shorthand used by woodcutters and caravan drivers (the only language that Armon and Trammil shared, other than Common). Although no member of the pack can read the book either, they all know the general nature of its contents and do not feel that they can gain any infor- mation from it. Only Armon has an interest in the book. Since Trammil s hanging, the pack has refused to do any more digging. In fact, its members have stopped transforming into wolves altogether. While they find living solely in human form a bit restrictive after giving free rein to their wild sides for so long, they can think of no other way to break the big wolf s hold over them and break it they must, before more tragedy ensues. Since the werewolves refuse to take on wolf form anymore, Armon has no further means to coerce them. He cannot approach them in his human form and threaten to divulge their secrets because that would reveal his own identity. And he cannot move through town in wolf form because the townsfolk are more than happy to slay wolves on sight. At this point, Armon just wants to retrieve what gold he can and leave Deepwood forever. But first he has to find a way to get his hands on Trammil s ledger. To complicate matters still further, Trammil s death has convinced the Deepwood werewolves to turn on their unwanted leader. Various members of the pack have been taking turns guarding the area where the gold is hidden. They plan to assume wolf form and attack anyone who comes to retrieve it, since the only person who could know about it is their tormentor. ADVENTURE SYNOPSIS Upon arriving at the outskirts of Deepwood, the PCs see Trammil s body hanging from a tree. As they proceed into town, they sense that the inhabitants are 4 THE MORAL QUANDARY Although it may not be obvious at first, the pivotal question on which this scenario turns is this: How will the people of Deepwood react when they find out that they have hanged an innocent man? Trammil died both because of his lycanthropic nature and because he allowed himself to be maneuvered into a compromising position. He was never permitted to plead his innocence because the townsfolk presumed that, as a werewolf, he must be guilty. But even though many characters would call Trammil a “monster,” the fact remains that he was punished for a crime he did not commit. Several aspects of this adventure also hinge on a tangential question: What will the ordinary citizens of Deepwood do when they find out that their neigh- bors are werewolves? The werewolves of the Deepwood pack have suc- cessfully hidden their true nature from friends, neighbors, and even loved ones for decades. Can the ordinary citizens of the town accept, under- stand, and—most importantly—forgive the pack for its years of deception? There is no easy answer to either of these ques- tions. Indeed, it is these aspects of the plot that you as DM can most easily adapt to suit your pur- poses. But before you can do that, you must decide what message you want to impart. Possibilities include: • Appearances can be deceiving. • Not all “monsters” are evil. • Never hide the truth, no matter how monstrous, from those you love. • Punishment meted out too swiftly is often tainted with injustice. • Nothing is as simple as it first seems. pqqqqrs pqqqqrs extremely fearful about something. They can interact with the townsfolk as much as they wish to gather information regarding recent events. All such informa- tion comes from the perspective of innocent humanoid residents who know nothing about the Deepwood pack or Armon s secret. Eventually, using either their own abilities or a scroll of comprehend languages that remains in the Temple of Ehlonna, the PCs can decipher Trammil s ledger. The information therein leads them to the Vale of the Silvery Moon, where a confrontation with some of the Deepwood werewolves (and Armon, if he still lives) occurs. ADVENTURE HOOKS The PCs could come to Deepwood for any of several reasons. They might come of their own accord after hearing rumors about a werewolf terrorizing an inno- cent village. Or they might inadvertently come across Deepwood while traveling to or from a different adven- ture. Perhaps one or more of the characters even hails from this remote town. As DM, you know best how to involve your players and their characters in an adventure. You can use the following adventure hooks to spur your imagination, modifying them as necessary to make them appropriate for the charact